In our experience, most people think of an ivy-covered four-year institution. It's rare that this question conjures up an image of a community college.

Yet, the 1,132 accredited community colleges in the U.S. enroll 44% of all domestic undergraduates. About half of all students at four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. attend community colleges prior to earning their degrees. In recent years that has translated into an annual community college enrollment of about 8 million students in credit programs and another 5 million for non-credit courses.

What is presented in NVCC's 2013-2016 Strategic Plan builds on the previous plan, maintaining the well-tested framework of five goals to serve as grounding forces in all that we do. Each goal then includes three initiatives, many of which got started or built momentum under our 2010–13 Strategic Plan. These goals and corresponding initiatives will drive activities on campus, focusing where in the higher education educational continuum—from pre-collegiate to program completion, graduation, employment and transfer—we think we can leverage significant impact to improve the 10 college-wide outcomes we will collectively strive for by 2016. Most importantly, they represent our efforts to even more fully realize our potential as a regional force in education and beyond.